Chapter 7: 007 – Trial

Chapter 007: Trial

White walls, and a brown tent. Next to it, there is Suzy who looks towards an empty direction.

(Oh no… Has she become depressed?)

“Suzy…”

“Huh? Sir Edward? Why are you back?”

(Why would she think I wouldn’t come back?… Has it been more than a week?…)

“… I’m sorry, were you lonely? I have some books and food for you…”

“But… You were gone just now?”

“Oh.”

My fears were unfounded. It seems the white room wasn’t too badly made.

Followers had to stay here, but time stopped and thus they wouldn’t starve.

“Has it been a seven days for Sir Edward?”

“That’s right. I expected you to be depressed, alone with just the chicken in an empty room…”

“I’m delighted to hear Sir Edward had such feelings for me… What is the next mission?”

“Let’s see…”

“It’s not called a mission anymore, but a trial… I’ll have to escape a dungeon with other apostles…”

“Other apostles… Twenty-third world… What is happening?” Mumbles Suzy.

“I might know by talking to these apostles… I’m worried that these other apostles might be enemies instead. The description is too vague.”

“…”

“Not only that, the rewarded points are very little. However the bonus points are given for each kill that F-tier and above, not that I know what that tier means at all. The worrisome part is that if an enemy gives only one point, it means I might have to kill up to a hundred enemies this time, looking at overall point distribution throughout missions…”

(But this is a trial instead of a mission… None of this thinking might apply.)

“I see…”

“This trial, I think you should stay here. No, I’d rather have you stay here.” I face the endless ceiling and speak to it in English. “Will time stop for followers here, once I enter the trial?”

“Suzy, time will stop here once I enter the trial. You have no need to worry.”

“I was worried you’d say that…”

“This time, there are extra unknowns, and I won’t be there alone. I may not be able to protect you either.” I face a random wall. “Are points also given to followers?”

There it went, the final reason why I would bring her. Suzabeth couldn’t grow stronger like I could.

I look towards Suzabeth’s face.

“…”

“… Please, let me come. I’ll carry the food, I’ll cook, I won’t bother you…”

Money wasn’t much of a problem especially with the 2000 dollars coming up.

It was quite painful seeing Suzy looking like an abandoned puppy.

“… Alright. But you must not endanger yourself, and especially not try to sacrifice yourself for me. I’ve improved my body to be more resilient than normal people, so putting your body in harm’s way would be of no help.”

“I haven’t done anything like that however?”

“Well… Yes, but that situation is quite cliche in my world. At least in books and stuff…”

Suzabeth laughs clearly while covering her mouth with her hand.

“Alright, alright, stop laughing. Let’s go. We’re leaving the chicken here.”

I dismount the tent and pack it up. Suzy takes the tent bag and a bag of food and water, with the new bigger mattress attached to the bag instead.

I leave the books on the floor. I grab my apostle slate this time in case I need to use those five points, even for a consumable.

I equip the bandit’s short sword, my knife, armor and bow. I then place a bag with food, water and my emergency kit on my shoulder.

I give my hammer to Suzy. As easy it is to use, it could help.

“Ready?”

“Yes!”

“Then, you first.” I hold open the black door for Suzy.

Suzy and I enter through the black door. As it closes, our vision shifts darkness.

A message appears in my mind’s eye. I ignore it.

I hurry and light up my solar torch. It’s running on batteries and can’t recharge in these conditions.

I should have bought something with a hand crank.

Gray stone appears all around us, except for a single corridor, reminiscent of my fight with the zombie.

(Will zombies appear again?)

I’d need 10 points for a light spell.

I take a look at the message.

I click on Magician, which seemed the most exciting and corresponded the best to my point purchases.

(So the class is finally set. Magical intuition?… In other words, talent?)

The class bonus seemed subtle and only advantageous for the long-term.

Checking the apostle slate, spells did not cost any less.

There wasn’t much more to think about my class.

“Follow behind me.” I ask Suzy.

We walk ahead. There’s not a soul in sight.

I often placed the light on the ground to watch out for pressure plates or thread, but there has been no traps.

There has been turns, left and right, but we seemed to be going the same direction anyway.

By this point, we’ve walked a few hours.

“This place is empty. Where are the apostles? If we have to walk for days, I fear we won’t ever arrive. This lamp is starting to fade too. After that there’s only my phone.”

Suzy replies, distressed.

“Maybe we should conserve the torch for later… What if we have no light when there are enemies?”

“You’re right… There aren’t any traps either.”

I shut down the light.

It gets pitch black again.

Suddenly I feel something on my arm, that slides down to my hand.

It’s Suzy hand-holding me.

“… It’s so that we don’t get separate, alright?”

“… Yeah.”

As we walk, we make small conservation to pass the time.

“I’d like to learn your language someday.”

“English? I can teach you. Might as well do it now?”

After walking another hour, Suzy got too tired. My own legs were numb with the weight of the bags.

“Let’s take a good break, we’ve walked for so long.”

“Un… Let’s eat…”

I use the lamp at minimum power to locate the beef jerky and a water bottle.

We eat in the dark, close to each other, close enough to hear the other’s breath and even heartbeat.

This is the only solace in this black dungeon.

(Maybe we actually need to walk the other way, and it’s infinite if we continue forward?)

While I had the lamp on, we didn’t see any turn or anything. There wasn’t any passageway, but perhaps magic has something to do with it, so thinking about it is also pointless.

If only I had magic detection abilities, then I could at least know that wasn’t the answer.

“Thank God I have you, Suzy. Being alone in the dark would have been much worse.”

“I’m glad to be of help. I’m happy you didn’t end up insisting on making me stay in the white room. No matter how tough it gets, I’ll be here with you.”

“Un…”

Suzy’s hand finds mine after a couple attempts.

I hold her hand back.

The good news was that the temperature in this dungeon was comfortable.

I was a bit hot with my leather suit, so I left the top part hanging aside from me.

Though that was mostly to hold Suzy’s hand without the glove part.

Skin to skin hand-holding was the best, it couldn’t compare with added protection on top.

“Suzy, if we need to fight later, I’ll probably need to use my hands, so I want you to hold onto the light. Look here, it’s easy to use, just press this button and point.”

“Un, okay.”

After finishing a meal and resting our legs, we continued onward.

Only half an hour later, we heard noise.

Squeak!

A loud, screechy squeak.

I hold Suzy’s hand tighter and get close to her ear. “Light up the torch, try to keep the beast visible, but don’t get close.” She replies with a small “Yes!”.

I leave her side and step forward, readying my bow.

(If it looks dangerous, I’ll blast one Magic Missile at it.)

I could use two in a row and then one every twenty minutes unless I recharged twice as fast with Mana Convergence.

That’s why there was little need to conserve mana too much.

Light blasts through the corridor, my eyes hurt a bit.

I see a giant rat, half a meter tall, looking at me.

(A skeever?)

The bite could be poisonous, and with the two sharp front teeth, it would probably penetrate the leather suit.

I let out an arrow, flying straight into its body.

“Squee!!”

It runs towards me.

I freak out. “Magic Missile!” A bolt of light flies to the giant rat, getting absorbed into it and making it drop dead.

(It didn’t burn it… What’s the mechanism behind the damage then?)

Perhaps it burned the nerves off like electricity.

The rat was dead.

But to be sure, I send another arrow at it.

It doesn’t move.

“It’s safe, Suzy. Leave the light on until I get the arrows back.”

I take out my knife and start cutting into the rat for the arrows.

“If there are other apostles in different corridors like us, those who didn’t bring food might have to eat the rat.”

“Eww… Edward!”

“Haha, I’m joking. We won’t need to anyway. We’ve brought enough to kill our backs.”

“What if we see them later and they have rat hair around their mouths? How can I stop myself from bursting out laughing!”

“Oh no, why did you tell me this?… I might not be able to look at their faces now!”

We continued forward.

We met two more rats, that died with a single Magic Missile each.

To be safe, I recharged completely my mana with Mana Convergence after each battle with the lone rats.

I look at my interface.

(Each kill is a point, so that’s three so far. If things go on like this, I can farm for points easily.)

The only difficulty, especially compared to the bandits, was that these were in the obscurity. Sometimes I could only see their eyes flashing with the light.

The rats were almost camouflaged with their gray fur, as if the darkness wasn’t enough.

(On the list, light spell, dark vision, more mana, spatial storage, mana detection, enemy detection… God that’s a lot. That’s worth hundreds of points or something.)

There were two good news.

One, is that I could probably buy a hand-cranked torch light through my apostle slate.

Two, my points were increasing after each kill in real time.

I shared this with Suzy, who seemed relieved too after I explained further.

The more rats, the better.

Then, something that made completely different sounds appeared.

Clunk Thonk Clunk

Suzy’s hand tightens around mine.

(What kind of sound is that?)

“Lit it, Suzy.”

I prepare my bow.

The light shines upon the corridor.

A figure appears, wearing very worn leather and cloth armor and wielding a sword.

Inside, is a skeleton.

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“A skeleton!?”

I let loose my arrow and switch to my short sword.

(I don’t have holy water with me.)

The skeleton doesn’t flinch when my arrow penetrates its skull, but it starts walking over to me.

“… Magic Missile!”

My magic missile flies into its head. Various glows burst out from its armor and bones, in distinct patterns and shapes, then the skeleton falls dead to the ground.

I wait a minute then I approach the skeleton to observe it.

Its cloth and leather armor dissolves almost like dust on contact. The bones crumble to the touch.

(It seems magic was strengthening it and making it move.)

I had gained one more point from this. I had 9 points.

“Alright, these are no big deal, at least with the magic missile. Let me recharge my mana and we’ll move on.”

“Yes, Sir Edward.”

…

A few hours later, I had killed 4 more rats and 3 more skeletons, putting me at 16 points.

Magic Light costs 10 points, but I decided to put the purchase aside for now.

With careful use, the solar lamp still had about a third of its charge left.

Finally, the corridor made a turn and we reached a twisting staircase going up.

Suzy and I didn’t need a break, since after every fight I meditated ten minutes to recharge my mana.

We climbed up the stairs.

After only a few minutes, we reached the top, where there was a single gray door.

We pushed it open.

I felt something weird when I touched the door.

Opening the door led to a huge, bright room.

For a second I thought it was the white room, but as my eyes adjusted, I understood it was still the same dungeon, with gray stone all over.

On the ceiling there were light sources, identical to those from the zombie mission.

“We’ve finally arrived.” I tell Suzy.

“Yes, the darkness was exhausting on the mind.”

I look around. Four other single doors are slowly opening simultaneously.

I draw my short sword in preparation.

I notice symbols on top of the doors.

A sword, a morning star, a bow and a knife. I quickly turn back. Above our door there is a staff.

The five classes I could choose from.

The creepy thing was that we opened the doors simultaneously.

First, a tanned man comes out the Fighter door, sweaty and wielding a sledgehammer and a chainsaw, with a face guard for chainsaw work, and heavy duty work pants. He has a big bag on his back.

He looks over at me and Suzy in confusion.

Then, out of the Priest door, a young woman with a spear, wearing a priestess' gown comes in, seemingly in fine condition.

She looks over with suspicion.

The last two doors stay almost closed.

(They must be trying to wait and see what happens.)

I start the conversation in English.

“Hello everyone. I’m Edward, from Ohio… Anyone speaks English?”

The nurse replies with a strong French accent. “Hello, my name is Claire. I live in France. Why is Suzabeth with you?”

“…!” I was half surprised she seemed to know Suzy. “You mean… Last mission, you had to rescue Suzabeth as well?”

“Yes! That’s right. You too? That’s bizarre.”

The tanned man comes in.

“I don’t English. Fala português? Eu sou do Brasil.” He asks. I make up the word Brazil.

I reply “No, no. Does anyone speak common here?”.

Suzabeth says “I’d prefer if everyone spoke common”.

With those words, the door to the Ranger opens further, and an Asian man, with guns all over him, steps through and falls on a knee.

In common, he says “Please help me, Suzabeth…”.

He’s bleeding a little from various spots, but looking at his clothes, it’s clear he’s bled a lot for a long time.

The French woman walks over. “Soins!”

Bright light shines from her hands, closing the wounds in real time.

(That must be the healing spell. Soin can be translated to healing.)

The soldier relaxes and sits down, thanking her in common.

I translate it to Claire in English.

Only the thief door stayed almost closed.

Taking a glance at Suzabeth, she looks confused, but she has her hammer in hand just in case.

The Brazilian man starts speaking bad English, apparently incapable of speaking common just like the soldier.

“My name Danielo Dasilva. From Brazil.”

The Asian man speaks in a frail voice in common. “I’m Lin Hao, from China. Does anyone know what this nightmare is?”

I reply. “I only know from what the white room answers and from deductions. We are apostles, chosen by one or several Gods, made to complete trials…”

“Uh… I guessed that much.” Replies Lin Hao.

“It seems we each chose a different class?” I repeat myself in Common and English.

Claire replies. “Yes, I chose what I felt was good, for me? Prêtresse.”

“Alright, first thing all of you should do, is to buy the Language Proficiency 1 for Common. It’s the language Suzabeth, Lin Hao and I speak, this only costs one point.”

The Brazilian man says “Oh, common? I search after”.

Claire replies. “Oh, yes. I will buy it when I can.”

I look around the room. There’s another larger gray door in front of the five doors we came through.

The Thief’s door is still half-closed.

“Is that guy dead behind the door…?” I mutter in common.

Suzabeth replies. “I don’t think so, I didn’t hear the sound of someone falling.”

Lin Hao addresses Suzy. “Suzabeth, why are you here, with Edward? Why aren’t you in your house?”

Suzy looks at me bewildered and replies. “How would you know? I pledged myself to Edward. I don’t know you?”

Lin Hao looks confused too. “What? But in the last mission… I helped you?”

I speak up. “I think… You met a different Suzabeth. We all had the same missions. We all met a different Suzabeth.”

“I see…” Lin Hao replies stoically.

Claire walks over to the Thief’s door, speaking in different languages. “Please come here! Nous ne te ferons pas de mal!”

A shadow jumps out the barely opened door and stabs Claire with a knife.

“AAAAHHH! Ça fait mal! À l’aide!”

The shadow is revealed to be a tanned, thin woman.

“HAHAHAHA!!! HAHAHA!”

She laughs creepily.

(She’s super fast.)

I wouldn’t be able to hit her with my bow. I wield my short sword and move to protect Claire.

“Suzabeth! Behind me!” Suzy follows me closely.

(I can’t afford to lose our healer.)

Claire heals her injured stomach while shaking.

The demon-like woman continues laughing.

(She’s crazy.)

Lin Hao points his rifle towards her.

Danielo also comes to guard Claire.

“Aqua flecheto!!!” The crazy woman shouts.

A water arrow forms next to her fist, and she throws it at me. I evade it with a brisk step.

Suddenly a deafening sound erupts.

BANG

Blood spurts out of the crazy woman’s thigh. Lin Hao shot her.

The woman falls to the ground, but at the last moment does a back flip and throws a dagger right in Lin Hao’s gun’s muzzle, disabling the gun.

“Haahh… HAAAAAA!!”

She has one last knife in hand.

I could send a magic missile, but I don’t want to kill her either. I’m not sure how much damage the magic missile does to a human.

Behind me, Claire stands back up.

“Let me! Esprit Tranquil!”

A gentle yellow light shines all around the room. Immediately, I feel calm, at peace.

The crazy woman stops shouting and laughing. She clutches her leg and starts crying.

Claire falls on her butt, tired. She must have used all of her mana with this and the two or three heals she did.

That woman is crazy, I search inside my bag and find some rope.

I get behind the woman and tie her arms behind her back. She lets herself get tied, then cries harder.

“Por favor… Por favor…!”

(She asks for pity now? It’s too late.)

After tying her up, we discuss with each other.

Claire says the woman must have lived through great pain just before and the last mission.

Thinking about it, if she failed the last mission and got captured by the bandits instead, she’d just get violated with Suzabeth. She would also lose all the points.

Seeing her throw a spell and moving so fast, I thought things weren’t so simple.

Looking closer at her, I say “She’s dehydrated”.

Claire nods and says “It’s very bad. She needs water now.”

Danielo seemed to be the only other one with a lot of supplies, but I don’t bother asking him and take out a water bottle.

Claire feeds her the water gently.

…

As the crazy woman wakes up, she calls out to Suzabeth.

“Suza… Suza…!”

Suzy looks at me with an understanding look.

The crazy woman must have gotten close to an alternate Suzabeth… Probably due to them suffering the same fate.

Suzy and the woman embrace each other. The woman starts crying.

“How did she survive the week long wait in the real world?” I ask myself out loud.

“…”

Lin Hao replies “She must have pretended it was all a dream, then once she came back to this damn dream world, it must have all come back.”

“Un…”

We wait until the woman calms back down. She starts introducing herself in English with a Spanish accent.

“My name is Raquel Aqua. I’m from Spain… I apologize for before, I just… My mind… It was like… I don’t know…”

Claire replies “Severe dehydration can cause hallucinations. Did you not drink before coming here?”

“I did… I did… I just didn’t bring any… As time went by… I got lost, went back on my steps…” She thinks for a while. “It took four days to reach the stairs.”

“Four days!? It took me one.” Claire replies.

Danielo says it took him half a day, but he jogged a little.

I speak up. “It took us all different amount of times. I think the door serves as a time barrier of sorts. When we touch the door, time stops for us until all doors are touched. Or something equivalent.”

“That’s crazy.” Says Raquel.

(No, you’re crazy!)

“No, time stops inside the white room when we leave it.” I add. “The screen repeatedly said we are apostles of certain Gods. Let me repeat it for everyone, please get Language Proficiency 1 for Common as soon as you can.”

“Hum… Alright.” They all agree, besides Lin Hao who’s out of the conversation.

“Then, let’s rest then we’ll move forward through this dungeon.”

Danielo and I end up sharing food and water with everyone.

During the break, I think about casting Mental Suggestions on the other members, especially Raquel.

But I end up choosing not to, as I’d need to speak either common or English depending on the person, and the others would catch on.

Not only that, this made me think I need mind protection for myself too.

…

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